Nokia Nostalgia- The Nokia 3650

Paperwork

Nokia 3650 Manual | Source

Handbook with phone | Source

I was recently lucky enough to 'win' a classic Nokia 3650 handset on the Nokia Support Discusssions forum, apparently they were having a clearout of the offices at Espoo and a number of old Nokia phones turned up in a draw somewhere, so as a bit of fun and also quite a bit of generousity, 'Michaels' the Community Manager of the forum held a bit of a competition giving people who posted on his thread to win some of the old Nokias that had turned up and I was lucky enough to win one of them .

Six Nokias & Some comparison to old & new

Menus and screen on 3650

Ironic Homescreen | Source

3650 Menu | Source

3650 Menu | Source

Classic Nokia start up with shacking hands | Source

Retro Twitter | Source

Kinda barren apps folder | Source

The phone turned up a couple of days later via DHL from Finland and I received it at work, the phone is as close to mint condition as possible, still has the original screen protector on it, despite being used (there were a couple of photos on it and a couple of text messages, which I assume are in Finnish as I couldn't read them) and simply came in a Jiffy Bag with the user manual. When I got the phone home I found an old 'Fat Pin' Nokia charger and put my 'Fat Sim' in it and waited a couple of hours to play !!

Now obviously, this phone is from 2003 and so to say it's out of date is an understatement, it's an early S60 Symbian phone, with a novel circular keyboard , sort of an 'O11' as apposed to a 'T9' lol, and so is kind of hard to use, although I'm sure with regular use it would have become easier, however it is extremely unlikely I will ever be able to confirm this. The 3650 is still fully functional in every way, but it is simply what it is , ten year old technology on a nine year old phone ? I had intended to try and use the phone for a couple of days, to see if I could cope, but basically, I couldn't, and what it did demonstrate to me is just exactly how far phone technology has moved on and just how different mobile phone useage is now compared to the early part of the century.

The 3650 will make calls and send text messages fine, but when looking for apps or trying to use the web you discover, or in my case remember just how bad WAP was, or maybe not. I remember being amazed using WAP for the first time and yet now it seems about as good as two cans and a piece of string, I did manage to find a version of Opera mini that simplified web navigation, but actually loading a page was timed in minutes instead of seconds and the availability of what are now expected as 'standard applications' Twitter, Facebook, Maps etc is almost nil, but then in 2003 they didn't exist and mobile web was really in its infancy. But as my main phone useage now seems to be 90% web based, I simply couldn't have coped with the 3650 on a daily basis now in 2012.

Also transferring anything onto or off the 3650 was painful, both because I had no cables for it and also because Bluetooth connection to anything except my N9 was extremely difficult. That being said, as a piece of history and an objet d'art, it's a really nice thing, a bit funky, and very colourful compared to my normal choice of handset, although Nokia seem to be increasing the availabilty of colouful handsets both with the Lumia and Asha ranges all available in a choice of bright colours and the shortly to be released Nokia 808 camera phone. Despite its size, the 3650 actually feels quite nice in the hand, the screen isn't bad and the little 0.3 Megapixel camera actually doesn't take a bad snap and I actually managed to post a couple of Tweets on it using Opera mini !!

Nokia 3650

Nokia 3650 | Source

My main conclusion is that tech just gets better and better, and that looking forward is the way to go and looking back can crack your rose tinted glasses. I'm really pleased with my new 'Toy' and really do appreciate receiving it and having the chance to use it, but I doubt I'll be using it very much !! So on with the pictures of and from the Nokia 3650.

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carman58 5 years agofrom Leeds, Uk

well thanks for reading Andy, I enjoyed doing it :-) as for the N97 , I still have a soft spot for it, but for it's crippling shortage of C drive memory it was/is actually a great phone !

Andy Hagon @AndyHagon 5 years ago

Great piece, Stephen! I love nostalgia articles like this. I never owned this phone but a colleague of mine did. I wasn't sure if I liked the form factor back then, but I do now! Funny how the best photo of the mug was taken with the N97. I thought that phone got trashed by reviewers. Thanks.